From the 'Well of the Retching Cure' to a commuter village on the M9 motorway

Tighe’s Statistical Observations of Kilkenny 1802

William Tighe (1766-1816) is associated with county Kilkenny through his ownership of the Woodstock Estate, near Inistioge, which he took over in the 1790s. Tighe travelled widely across Europe but also had time to carry out extensive renovations and improvements at Woodstock. In 1802 his book, Statistical Observations Relative to the County of Kilkenny Made in the Year 1800 and 1801 was published by Craisberry and Campbell. In this publication, Shankill and Kilmacahill civil parishes are mentioned.

Page 461 of the book shows the population of various civil parishes in the county of Kilkenny. It including those which make up the village of Paulstown, namely Shankill and Kilmacahill. In 1800 Shankill is listed as having 171 families and 1078 inhabitants with Kilmacahill having 124 families and 785 inhabitants. Statistics available for other civil parishes, such as the number of males and females are not given for Shankill and Kilmacahill.

Page 527 also describes how the titles of the parish of Kilmacahill are distributed. The collection of tithes eventually led to the Tithe Wars of the 1830s which were very prominent in county Kilkenny.